Woman falls prey to online job scam, loses Rs 5 lakh

THANE [MAHARASHTRA]: A 26-year-old woman from Maharashtra's Thane city was duped of Rs 5 lakh by an unidentified online fraudster by offering her a job, police said on Friday.

The woman told police that she saw a job advertisement on her Instagram page on January 4.

The website to which the advertisement directed demanded some initial payments before she got the job.

She made a total payment of Rs 5,38,173 over the next six days. But when she contacted the numbers provided to her, there was no response.

Realizing that she had been duped, she approached Chitalsar police station in the city with a complaint.

A case was registered under IPC section 420 (cheating) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and further probe is on, police said.